Trump to sue Nevada claiming vote was rigged as he launches lawsuits with his hold on White House weakening
President Donald Trump is set to file a lawsuit against the state of Nevada after he claimed on Thursday morning, November 5, that its election process has been rigged. The Republican claimed that at least 10,000 people voted in the state despite not living there, which is a breach of election rules. The incumbent, however, did not provide any evidence to support his unsubstantiated claims.
The president's former director of national security, Richard Grenell, is reportedly expected to announce the lawsuit in Nevada on Thursday morning, according to Fox News. Trump's political rival, Democratic nominee Joe Biden, is currently leading the Nevada vote with results expected to be declared by Thursday afternoon. If the Democrat wins Nevada, the state's six electoral college votes would lead Biden to victory in the 2020 presidential elections. The former vice president is just 6 electoral votes short of clinching the White House seat, according to the Associated Press current poll.
The update comes hours after his campaign filed lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania, claiming that the states had fallen victim to election rigging. The move came after Biden won Michigan, taking it back from Trump who had flipped the state from Democrat to Republican in the 2016 election. Trump has also demanded a recount in Wisconsin after Biden flipped it back to Democrat post-Trump's surprise victory in 2016 elections.
Addressing Trump's demand for a recount, Wisconsin’s election boss Meagan Wolfe insisted that all votes in the election were counted correctly, and insisted that a recount of the votes will emphasize this.
Trump's campaign, in an unsual move, declared victory in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, November 4, at a time when a large number of votes remained uncounted. The campaign has also vowed to sue the state and Michigan, calling for a stop in counting citing lack of transparency, reports state.
Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, on Wednesday said that he was "declaring victory in Pennsylvania” with less than 80 percent of the vote being counted. His announcement was followed by a similar one from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the president's younger son Eric Trump. The premature announcement of the state victory appeared to be a coordinated attempt to disrupt the counting of legitimate ballots in the state where Trump's lead is dramatically narrowing.
The Trump campaign, in a statement, also stated that it was suing to stop the vote count in Michigan and Pennsylvania and cited lack of "transparency" in the counting process as their reason. Trump’s deputy campaign manager, Justin Clark, said that the president's campaign is "suing to stop Democrat election officials from hiding the ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers." Clark added that the Trump campaign wants to "temporarily halt counting until there is meaningful transparency and Republicans can ensure all counting is done above board and by the law."
The campaign's move comes just hours after President Trump falsely claimed victory in the presidential polls despite millions of votes yet to be counted. Trump addressed the nation post-Election Day, on Wednesday early morning, attacking legitimate vote-counting efforts, saying: "Millions and millions of people voted for us. A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people." Trump, who gave his speech from the White House, insisted that the states where vote tallies currently show him leading should be called in his favor despite significant votes yet to be counted. "We were getting ready for a big celebration. We were winning everything. And all of a sudden it was just called off," he said, and claimed fraud without any evidence. "This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country," Trump claimed. "Frankly we did win this election," he said.